Publication Date: 03-29-2026

The Battle of Gettysburg (1955) review

Dir. Herman Hoffman

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★

Imagine the dry, didactic verbiage of your fourth grade history textbook come to life, set to still images of the illustrations within the book that occasionally cut to shots of famous memorial statues and on-location pans of Gettysburg, and you have The Battle of Gettysburg. If you recall those days in high school history class, where the teacher would lecture you about history you’ve already memorized and regurgitated enough times to be able to author a textbook about the events and your experiences learning said material, The Battle of Gettysburg might trigger post-traumatic stress disorder that even the glorious colors and wide-angle camera lens of early CinemaScope, nor Leslie Nielsen’s soothing narration, can’t cure.

The approach director Herman Hoffman and writer Dore Schary take is one of incredibly redundant, historical prose, that lacks any kind of emotional attachment to the battle and the noteworthy figures that were involved, let alone sacrificed, in Gettysburg. Shockingly dry and almost unbearably long at thirty minutes, it’s stunning to see such acclaim for a short that would’ve probably drove kids batty and restless if shown in schools.

NOTE: As of this writing, The Battle of Gettysburg can viewed on YouTube, free of charge.

Narrated by: Leslie Nielsen. Directed by: Herman Hoffman.